A Soviet economist and...

LEONID V. KANTOROVICH, 74,

April 11, 1986

MOSCOW — LEONID V. KANTOROVICH, 74, a Soviet economist and mathematician who was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 1975, died Monday, the Soviet press agency Tass reported.

Kantorovich was considered an indirect critic of the Soviet economic system and part of a new generation of Soviet thinkers who confronted the country's economic and social problems without the restraint of dogma.

He couched his criticism in mathematical terms and, because of his ideas, became known as one of the Soviet Union's ''reform'' economists. He advocated the adoption of economic methods outlawed under Stalin, but used widely in the West by governments exploring the role of state planning in the economy.

Kantorovich won the Nobel Prize with Tjalling C. Koopmans of Yale University. Both were cited ''for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources.'' Kantorovich, the first Soviet citizen to receive the economics prize, theorized that the Soviet Union failed to achieve optimum economic growth because of a deficient investment policy.